Caller In Darkness (CR 9)
Large Undead (Incorporeal)
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Initiative: +7 (+3 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative); Senses: Listen +12 and Spot +12
AC: 14 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +2 deflection), touch 14, flat-footed 11
Hit Dice: 11d12 (71 hp)
Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +9
Speed: 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Space: 5 ft./10 ft.
Base Attack +5; Grapple +4
Attack: 4 incorporeal touches +7 melee
Full Attack: 4 incorporeal touches +7 melee
Damage: Incorporeal touch 2d6
Special Attacks/Actions: Steal essence, psionics
Abilities: Str -, Dex 16, Con -, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha -
Special Qualities: Undead, incorporeal, +2 turn resistance, psionics, unnatural aura, daylight powerlessness
Feats: Alertness; Blind-fight; Combat Reflexes; Improved Initiative; Mental Adversary
Skills: Hide +13, Intimidate +12, Listen +12, Search +12, Sense Motive +8, Spot +12, and Survival +6
Advancement: 12-18 HD (Huge); 19-26 HD (Gargantuan)
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary
Treasure/Possessions: None
Source:
Psionics Handbook
Steal Essence (Su): Any intelligent creature slain by a caller in darkness is mentally absorbed into the monster's consciousness within 1d4 rounds (the physical body of the victim remains intact). A caller can also absorb the essence of a creature whose ability score in any mental attribute (Int, Wis, or Cha) it has reduced to 0 through psionic combat; it need not first eliminate the downed creature's Constitution. Stealing a being's essence grants the caller 12 temporary hit points, and a permanent new screaming face appears within its cloud.
Psionics (Sp): At will -- clairaudience/clairvoyance, detect psionics, fatal attraction, mass concussion, and suggestion. These abilities are as the powers manifested by an 18th-level psion.
Attack/Defense Modes (Sp): At will --all/all
Unnatural Aura (Su): Both wild and domesticated animals can sense the unnatural presence of a caller in darkness at a distance of 30 feet. They will not willingly approach nearer than that and panic if forced to do so; they remain panicked as long as they are within that range.
Daylight Powerlessness (Ex): Callers in darkness are utterly powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a daylight spell) and flee from it. A caller caught in sunlight cannot attack and can take only partial actions.
All creatures fear incorporation into the undead fog of a caller in darkness. Those who lose their lives to the horror are doomed to share its endless misery.
A caller in darkness is an incorporeal creature comprising the minds of dozens or more victims who died together in terror. It seeks to draw others into its fear-wracked, hellish existence.
From a distance, a caller appears as a bank, column, or swirling vortex of mist, but within 30 feet or less, dozens of silently screaming humanoid faces are discernible in its form.
Callers in darkness do not speak.
Incorporeal Subtype
Some creatures are incorporeal by nature, while others (such as those that become ghosts) can acquire the incorporeal subtype. An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It has immunity to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells, including touch spells or magic weapons, it has a 50% chance to ignore any damage from a corporeal source (except for positive energy, negative energy, force effects such as magic missile, or attacks made with ghost touch weapons). Non-damaging spell attacks affect incorporeal creatures normally unless they require corporeal targets to function (such as the spell implosion) or they create a corporeal effect that incorporeal creatures would normally ignore (such as a web or wall of stone spell). Although it is not a magical attack, a hit with holy water has a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal undead creature.
An incorporeal creature's natural weapons affect both in incorporeal and corporeal targets, and pass through (ignore) corporeal natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Attacks made by an incorporeal creature with a nonmagical melee weapon have no effect on corporeal targets, and any melee attack an incorporeal creature makes with a magic weapon against a corporeal target has a 50% miss chance except for attacks it makes with a ghost touch weapon, which are made normally (no miss chance).
Any equipment worn or carried by an incorporeal creature is also incorporeal as long as it remains in the creature's possession. An object that the creature relinquishes loses its incorporeal quality (and the creature loses the ability to manipulate the object). If an incorporeal creature uses a thrown weapon or a ranged weapon, the projectile becomes corporeal as soon as it is fired and can affect a corporeal target normally (no miss chance). Magic items possessed by an incorporeal creature work normally with respect to their effects on the creature or another target. Similarly, spells cast by an incorporeal creature affect corporeal creatures normally.
An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (always at least +1, even if the creature's Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid object but must remain adjacent to the object's exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see clearly and attack normally, a incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creature cannot make trip or grapple attacks against corporeal creatures, nor can they be tripped or grappled by such creatures. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate a corporeal being or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.
An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Listen checks if it doesn't wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to both its melee attacks and its ranged attacks. Non-visual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.